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From: Eric Wolf
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So I downloaded the "free" VMware ESXi 5 and installed it. The basic
install led me to download an evaluation copy of vSphere. This is all
really cool. I've been able to set up a Win7 VM and an Ubuntu VM.
But in vSphere, at the top of the screen, it says "VMware EXSi, 5.0.0,
623860 | Evaluation (60 days remaining)"
I know the vSphere software is supposed to be an evaluation but that
message makes me afraid the Hypervisor will shut down in 60 days too. The
VMware website is a bewildering array of vThis and vThat, most of which
costs several thousands of dollars. The only thing they offer academic
pricing on is Workstation and Fusion.
Am I running a Hypervisor that's going to die in 60 days? Or is it just the
vSphere Client? If it's just the client, what do I use to manage the VMs
after the evaluation period? Should I grab an older copy of VMware ESX and
the management client?
-Eric
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Eric B. Wolf 720-334-7734

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From: Dave Brockman
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Well, if you registered for and downloaded a "trial", you get full
bells and whistles (none of which you'll use on a single host) for 60
days and at the end of that time period, the hypervisor will not die,
but it will no longer power on your VMs.
You basically need to register for a free license of ESXi, that is
perpetual, you just lose all the cool toys you can't use on a single
host anyway. Probably start here:
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/info/slug/datacenter

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From: Eric Wolf
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Thanks Dave!
Your instructions got me to the point where I could enter a license key for
ESXi - which I had. Once that was entered, the product features dropped a
little. but matching my hardware capacity - 1 physical CPU, 32GB RAM.
And now it says Expires: Never!
So, what do recommend I use for administration once vSphere goes away?
-Eric
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Eric B. Wolf 720-334-7734

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From: "Alex Smith (K4RNT)"
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The client for ESXi is vSphere Client, and it never expires. You will be
able to use vSphere on your ESXi server indefinitely. Until you enter your
product key into ESXi, it operates with the full feature set of ESX, and is
in a trial mode until you enter your key. The client works on ESXi and ESX,
the client doesn't expire, the server does. Also, the product key is
configured for the amount of physical/virtual CPUs you specified when you
applied for the product key on download of ESXi. Don't be alarmed on that
either. I don't remember if ESXi's product keys operate on physical sockets
or number of cores, but whichever the product key page stipulates, you can
change your number of CPUs up to a total of 10 processors, I believe.
Check the VMware website to verify the numbers I gave, Other than that, I
am certain about the vSphere client, I've used ESXi before, it's just been
a while.
Have fun, and tell us about your experiences and applications! :)
Don't be alarmed, keep calm and carry on. :)